Railroad-cab platform



H, HOLOROFT- 810. S. SMITH. RAILROAD GAR PLATFORM.

Patented June 2; 1863i J T M O I OTO Q WWW HENRY HOLCROFT AND CANBY S.SMITH, OF CHESTER VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILROAD-CAIR- PLATFORM.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 38,743, dated June 2, 1863.

T 0 (J3 whom it may concern:-

Be it known that we, H. HOLCROFT and C. S. SMITH, of Chester Valley, inthe county of Chester and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new anduseful Attachment for the Platforms of Railroad- Cars; and we do herebydeclare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description of thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part ofthis specification, in which Figure l, is a plan or top view of ourinvention partly in section; Fig. 2, a side sectional view of the same,taken in the line 50, m, Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the twofigures.

This invention consists in the employment of a slide attached to one endof the platform of a car, and arranged with a treadle, lever, andspring; and used in connection with a catch applied to the end of theplatform of an adjoining car and also arranged with treadles whereby theslide may by simply depressing the treadles wit-h the foot, be thrownacross the space, between the ends of the platforms of two adjoiningcars, so as to form a complete bridge, and when the person or personshave passed over from one platform to another, be released and thrownback to its original position.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct ourinvention, we will proceed to describe it.

A, A represent the ends of the platforms of two adjoining railroad cars,and B, is a slide which is placed horizontally in the platform A, andallowed to slide freely.

therein. To the platform A, there is attached a pendant C, to the lowerpart of which a bent lever D is attached, one end of which is connectedby a rod a, with a lever D", which is connected with the slide B, asshown in Fig. 1, and to the lever D, there is constructed a spiralspring E which has a tendency to keep the slide B within the platform A.This will be understood by referring to Fig. 2. The opposite end of thebent lever D, has the lower end of a vertical rod F, attached to it,said rod F, passing up through the platform A, and having a button 6,secured to its upper end.

In the outer end of the platform A there is a recess 0 of sufficientcapacity to receive the end of the slide B, and G is a catch which isformed of an'upright bar (Z, attached to a spring 6, the upper end ofthe bar being beveled or inclined, and projecting up into the recess 0,so as to lit in a recess f, in the slide B, and retain the latter in therecess 0. The spring 0 has an upright rod 9 attached to it, said rodpassing up through the platform A and having a button Z), attached toit.

The operation is as follows: Then the cars are passing along, at anyrate of speed a person desiring of passing from one car to another,presses down the rod F with his foot and thereby actuates the lever D,so as to throw the slide B out from the platform A, and its outer endinto the recess 0 of the adjoining plat-form A where it is held by thecatch G which engages with it.

The slide B is released by pressing down the rod 7', and thereby forcingthe bar (Z, out from the recess f, in the under side of the slide, thespring E, drawing the slide B back within the platform A.

The arrangement it will be seen is extremely simple, and may be appliedat a small cost.

Having thus described our invention What we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent; is I The slide B, applied to the platform A,and arranged with the spring E bent lever D, lever D, and rod F, andrecess f; in combination with the spring catch G and re cess 0 in theplatform A all arranged as and for the purpose specified.

HENRY HOLCROFT. C. S. SMITH. WVitnesses JAMES HoLonor'r, BENJAMINMORGAN.

